Hoping to add to its numbers, a prominent teachers union wants another big perk: free tuition.

Despite massive losses by the candidates it supported, the National Education Association is proceeding headlong this week with its “Degrees Not Debt Week of Action.” The week of political theater seeks to rally support for new laws forcing taxpayers to foot all or part of the college tuition costs for anyone who becomes a teacher.

The NEA has scheduled a slew of events around the country to bring awareness to the quest for college loan forgiveness for teachers, according to a press release the union sent to The Daily Caller.

“NEA’s student members have sounded the alarm for us, as college is so much more expensive than when I attended,” NEA president Lily Eskelsen García declared. “We’re seeing new educators with over $50,000 in student loan debt — way more than their first year’s salary as a teacher and much higher of a payment than they can afford to pay.”

García suggested that “affordable solutions” could include more debt-refinancing options for student-loan borrowers.

The NEA also wants the now-completely Republican-controlled Congress to provide more free federal money and “expand loan forgiveness programs, especially for people working in public service careers like education.”

The federal government already offers the very generous Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which completely forgives the student loans incurred by qualifying government and nonprofit workers if these special workers manage to stay employed for 10 straight years and make their loan payments each month.